As set forth in the background of Millard F. Smith's U.S. Pat. No. 3,564,852 issued Feb. 23, 1971, entitled Flexible Floating Booms, he states booms for confining floating materials have evolved from log booms confining floating logs arriving at a saw mill, and then he discloses his flexible floating boom, primarily deployed as a floating oil boom. His boom has units of a planar fin topped with a cylindrical foam float and ballasted at the bottom, and interconnected with others by a continuous cable located just below the foam float and by excess continuous fin material extending between the units.
Paul Preus and Charles E. Rosendahl in their U.S. Pat. No. 3,579,994 issued May 25, 1971, entitled Barrier for Control of Substances in Bodies of Water, describe and illustrate their barrier centering on an upright flexible skirt having an inflated body along the top and a weighted body along the bottom, with multiple tiered and spaced water ballasting pockets which are both self filling and self bailing. Each barrier unit is secured to an adjacent one by a hinge connection.
Eugene C. Greenwood in his U.S. Pat. No. 3,592,005, entitled Oil Barrier for Offshore Oil Rigs, describes his angularly positioned planar containment units supported by air filled pipe portions and equipped with a top deflector, and joined to others by hinged joints supplemented with flexible sealers.
Murray Risin and Robert Snyder in their U.S. Pat. No. 3,597,924, entitled Floating Oil Barrier and Method of Containing a Floating Substance, describe and illustrate their utilization of expandable and compressible vertical hexagonal barriers made of semirigid metal or plastic segments interconnected with web portions of like material. They are all joined together by a continuous strap or cable, and in the top portions of the hexagonal units there are buoyancy units and in the bottom portions there are ballast units.
Millard F. Smith in another of his U.S. Pat. No. 3,638,430 issued on Feb. 1, 1972, entitled High-Strength Fire-Resistant Spill Control Booms, illustrates and describes the utilization of a continuous flexible fin of a plastic coated knitted wire mesh, foldable upon storage, and when deployed held upright by foamed aluminum blocks secured on both sides of its top portions.
Edmond Flaviani in his U.S. Pat. No. 3,651,647, issued Mar. 28, 1972, entitled Oil Slick Confinement Equipment, discloses his special barrels having hinged panels at one end and recesses at the other end to slidably receive the hinged panel of an adjacent barrel. Each barrel is equipped below with a fin-keel stabilizer, and all barrels are interconnected by using a continuous cable.
Robert K. Thurman in his U.S. Pat. No. 3,751,925, issued Aug. 14, 1973, entitled Floating Oil Containment Boom, and in his U.S. Pat. No. 3,868,824, issued Mar. 4, 1975, entitled Modular Oil Containment Boom, discloses his use of four by eight feet marine plywood panels, each serving as an upright flat barrier and joined to adjacent barriers with a flexible panel and sometimes supplemented with stress bearing chains. All panels have metal drums on each side to acquire buoyancy and all panels have flexible materials weighted inside for ballast secured along their bottom edges. A continuous line joins the panels together.
In summary, these inventors have all realized the need for having barriers which tend to remain upright by using floats and ballast, and maintain the continuity of the barrier by using flexible interconnectors, and sustain overall loadings by using a continuous tension line for interconnecting all of the barriers. Some of them have realized the need for convenient storage, need for foldable units, need for using standard materials, and the need for quick deployment of such overall barriers deployed in inland waters, sounds, and oceans.